Marketers may be hesitant to invest in third-party big data insights due to poor reputation. Digiday blasted the products of many big data vendors as “cheap, plentiful, [and] inaccurate, citing cases 30-35% inaccuracy rates discovered through validation testing. However, even the most outspoken critics of third-party data admit that not all vendors are equal, and marketers can drive desired results if they don’t trade “accuracy for scale.”
With the right vendor, third party big data can be a crucial tool for generating lift in marketing results. The proof is in the meteoric growth of programmatic advertising, in which results are largely dependent on data quality and scale. Perhaps more importantly, marketers must remember that third-party data purchased from outside parties isn’t a new concept.
Marketing teams have bought insights for decades as a tool for tailoring print advertising and direct mail campaigns. While the best advertising formats and data scale have changed, the importance of outside perspective hasn’t. Join as we review reasons why validated, high-quality third party data assets are crucial to marketing results.1. Third-Party Data Can Be First-Party Data
Third-party that generates poor marketing results or contains vast inaccuracies is usually far-removed from it’s source. It was purchased from the organization who originally collected it months prior, scrubbed, categorized, and distributed. However, with BDEX’s data marketplace, your team can purchase data from first-party sources in real-time. Instead of relying on aging insights or questionable segments, you can combine your data with another organization’s first party insights, resulting in far broader contacts and understanding.2. Third-Party Data Introduces You to New Contacts
While emails, mobile, and programmatic advertising are important tools for customer retention, marketers are in the business of acquiring new customers. The goal of a marketing department is to attract people who resemble your most qualified customers. Third-party data can function much like the contact lists or leads marketers may have purchased in the past. With exclusive partnerships, you can gain access to the email addresses of pre-qualified consumers who are actively looking for your product or services.3. Your Data isn’t Validated
Third-party data assets from trusted vendors can reveal uncomfortable truths about your organization’s data quality. The most commonly reported data management challenge is resolving quality problems “before they become an issue.” Even if your organization has above-average data management practices, there are likely inaccuracies in your contact profiles. By reconciling your insights in a data management platform against a third-party vendors, you can perform validation and cleansing actions needed to maintain accurate information.4. Your Touch Points aren’t the Full Picture
Even if your organization engages in extensive first-party data collection practices, you’re probably not getting the full picture. Your insights are limited to what you’re able to collect through Cookies, user-generated web content, and customer touch points. If you’re in the finance industry, you may not know that your customer is expecting a child. If you’re in real estate, you may not know that a client is actively planning for retirement. In order to understand your consumers on an individual level, third-party insights are typically necessary.
Ideally, third-party data has the potential to elevate your team’s insights through validation and the addition of well-rounded insights. Instead of relying exclusively on your own touch points, you can gain insights from other organization’s data collection practices.BDEX is a first-of-its-kind marketplace, offering marketing teams the ability to connect directly with first-party data vendors in a variety of industries. Buyers gain the ability to access objectively-scored, real-time insights, which can be downloaded directly into your data management platform (DMP) to immediately begin generating marketing lift.